Mepa willing to support Ghajnsielem Christmas village

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) said that it will continue to back the Ghajnsielem local council's initiative to organise the Christmas village once again.

"The authority reiterates that it always gave its full backing to whoever promotes cultural activities,and is ready to once again support the Christmas village event if the organisers are willing to re-organise the activity."

In a statement issued on Friday, Mepa said that if the Ghajnielem local council desires to put up the Christmas village like it did in previous years, "all it has to do is notify the authority according to its simple and easy procedures according to the Development Notification Order (DNO)."

Mepa added that it always supported cultural activities and pointed out that the application to which the council was referring to is different to the Christmas village  permit.

"The application is proposing the development of a recreational rural park in the area known as 'Ta' Passi', which includes development that falls outside the development scheme, which potentially has sensitive environmental elements," Mepa noted.

In addition the authority said that the council's proposal included the development of local council offices and other facilities and structures.

"For that reason we would like to note that the application goes beyond the applications submitted in previous years for the Christmas village," Mepa said.

The authority added that "under such circumstances it is Mepa's responsibility to ensure that this application, like all other applications, on sites that fall outside the development zone, is processed in detail, according to law, since the proposed structures are permanent."

Mepa also pointed out that in September 2011 it had informed the Ghajnsielem local council that in order to process the application, the council had to submit fresh plans as well as additional information, such as an environmental study.

It had also made it clear that the permanent structures proposed in the application had to be moved within the development zone.

Mepa also said that the final information was submitted in September 2012, while the Project Description Statement (PDS) was submitted on 23 October.